What happened to personal contact?

November 01, 2015

My face when I need a hug

So, I'm sitting in Starbucks writing on my MacBook, looking down at my iPhone and wearing an Apple Watch. I'm connected. Too connected.
A table over from me are two people who obviously know each other and they are both on their phones. Sharing pictures from whatever app they're viewing. But no words are being exchanged.

Is this the new normal? Are we so addicted to our electronic devices that we don't talk anymore? I'm not one to judge because I just laid out the fact that I'm just as addicted. Do I need an Apple Watch? If I'm honest, no. But has it changed my life? Yes. It alerts me to every damned thing. Even when I don't really care about it. For example, the Kenyans won the NYC Marathon again. *Kanye Shrug*

But am I happy I can live out my Inspector Gadget fantasy and talk on the phone from my wrist? Yep!

I can't remember the last time I've gone on a date —I'm on strike, but that's a story for another day—but I'd like to think that I'd put my phone away and talk to the guy sitting across the table from me.
This might be a little TMI, but when I was #TeamFitbit, I wore it during sex and I kept trying to look at my heart rate, that's probably why I haven't been on a date in a while. But I digress.

When you're out alone and you don't want to be bothered, the phone is a great way to get people to leave you the hell alone. White earbuds are the international sign of "don't talk to me." (Unless you're in the South. People in the South will try you. Yes, that's just how we're made. Smile at the wrong Southerner and you will be drawn into a two hour conversation.)

Back to the folks on the phone date, they haven't touched hands once. This just makes me sad.
Oh, well, back to my novel.

Comments

Michelle Monkou said…

I think every few generations technology steps in to shake up how we communicate. From the time when we all lived in the same house with the grandparents in the house or nearby, where the small town or neighborhood was the communication/gossip line, where maybe only one or two people may have had a telephone (in rural towns), to moving away from hometowns to big cities and putting miles between the close knit lifestyle, to using pagers, to cell phones, etc. But the option is always there to go old school--to have no technology days or meals or dates. We can adapt or not, but short of an apocalypse, we'll continue until we only have to blink our thoughts to each other, from different rooms or cities, without moving our lips.

November 1, 2015 at 2:30 PM